This is an exciting moment for us. School of Visual Art in Manhattan – http://www.sva.edu/ – has built an ESA specific, photography-based, Pre-College Program for our students. This is a three week course focused on contemporary photography and artistic practice. Students will receive college credit, work with photo based artists and art gallery staff and the photography staff of SVA towards an exhibition in New York.

This is an incredible opportunity to experience an intensive post-secondary class, and to try living and being an artist in New York City. Our participating students will have opportunities to meet other high school students from around the world participating in other pre-college programs at SVA – info here.

If you’ve been waiting to scoop up your 60 Second Film Fest tickets, a word to the wise would be to wait no longer. The event is over 90% sold out. Although there might be a few tickets available in the foyer at lunch tomorrow, your best bet is to get them here.

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All parents of those preparing for PD8 in 2017 and all students who will be participating are asked to join us for a meeting on Wednesday December 14 at 7pm.

We will cover all aspects of preparing for a successful experience, and implications for post-secondary opportunities and scholarships. We will also discuss a fabulous new opportunity for ESA students we are developing in New York in July.

Parents and students who will be part of PD9 are certainly also encouraged to attend.

(http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090848a5ae23a5f49-portfolio) to see where you can help out. Thanks again – your support is very much appreciated!

Reminder of the schedule for parents – we would love your help setting up after school this week and taking down Friday night. Some schools will be set up in the library to speak with you beginning at 6.30.

Everyone else is invited to join us at 7pm to see the show

We have a record number of programs/schools attending – see list below:

One of our super amazing parents, Andrea McBride, has been looking after the organisation of food and drink for the previous few portfolio days and she has been expertly fine tuning the process.

This year she has created a hugely practical process for those who would be willing to help with food for the day. Andrea has created the sign up below which allows her to track what is arriving. Please CLICK http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090848a5ae23a5f49-portfolio to see what we are asking for on the day.

We are super lucky to have such amazing support from all of the 110 or so representatives that are coming in from around the world to speak to our kids that day, and want to make sure they have a fantastic time and are very well cared for here at ESA. Many schools are of course spending thousands of dollars to send their staff to our school (some schools send multiple representatives), and we want to make sure they realise how thankful we are.

We will begin installing today in places, and in more places throughout the week. Next week is when the bulk of the work will take place. If you missed our meeting a few weeks ago, it would be good to catch up as the type and amount of work required to be successful in the coming months is certainly outside of what most people anticipate. There is a specific process for scholarships and acceptances that begin with portfolio day, and skipping or missing steps will cost us in the end.

Please make sure to join us on Friday October 28 from 7-9.30pm for PD7 and stay to help us clean up after if you can. Everyone is welcome – please invite all those you think would like to come. FB invite: CLICK HERE

I am writing to ask a favor of all parents of grade 12 parents of those in PD7 and invite you to a preliminary meeting Tuesday October 4 at 7pm in room 102.

We are about to engage in three very intense and important weeks and we need your help.

On October 28 we will be visited by 60+ post-secondary schools – the most ever! Programs from 6 countries and 3 continents are coming to see the work of 70 of our grade 12’s. Nothing like this happens anywhere else on the planet as far as we know. This is a truly memorable experience and perhaps the single most significant day of high school for participants.

The representatives from all of the attending schools use this opportunity to scout top picks for the 2016-2017 year. As far as we can figure, ESA students are offered more top scholarship offers than any other group of students on the planet – in large part because of Portfolio Day.

Many of the schools are spending thousands of dollars to fly representatives to Toronto just to meet your kids. The benefit on our end for those applying to these schools is significantly increased scholarship offers and a near perfect acceptance record – almost every one of our kids gets into every program they apply to.

It is vitally important that we make their time with us as enjoyable and rewarding as possible so that they support our kids during the application and scholarship process, and so that they want to come back to ESA next year. The personal relationships made during Portfolio Day are the foundation of vital support when it comes time to decide who gets what scholarship money.

We want to be prepared to prove that we are the top picks on the planet, and help the representatives have a really fantastic day. We can do a better job with your help.

I would like to ask you for three things.

– We are feeding and hydrating and caffeinating 110 representatives and 70 students for ten hours. Donations of special food and drink items would be enormously appreciated by all involved. Anyone who would like to contribute please feel free to drop off whatever you can the afternoon/evening of October 27 or the morning of October 28. We do have several folks with nut allergies so those should be avoided.

– We can really use your help setting up and taking down. This may be one of the largest art shows on the planet – something in the range of 3000 works – that is set up and seen and taken down in two days. We also need a builder at this point able to help us with several fixtures. Most of the install happens after school on October 26, and between noon and 10pm on Thursday October 27th. Take down begins at 9.30pm on Friday October28th and takes 1.5 hours. We endeavour to have every aspect of PD removed by the time we leave ready for the photographer to arrive Monday morning to document all the work.

– Advertising – one of the most exciting moments of Portfolio Day is at 7pm when the public is invited to join us for a look at what we have been up to. We have something in the neighbourhood of 1200 people attend that night. If you could please invite as many interested friends and family members as possible, it would greatly contribute to our experience. Anyone with press or media contacts is invited to make special invitations as we would appreciate the publicity. In the past we have had coverage by CBC news and the Toronto Star, etc. More of the same helps increase our reach for potential future applicants to the program.

Please come to a meeting on Tuesday October 4th at 7pm in room 102 to discuss Portfolio Day responsibilities, applications, portfolios, scholarships, strategies for scholarships, and academic programs. We need everyone to participate as it is a very big job.